Cloud Atlas (2012)

Not that I've talked to a lot of people about this movie, but all of those that I have mentioned needing to watch it more than once so that they could understand just exactly what was going on. It's kind of like before I saw Fight Club and everyone was saying things like, "I didn't figure it out until the end" or "I knew during the breast exam" (trust me that makes sense in the context of Fight Club). So, I went into it knowing that there was a puzzle to be aware of, and since I knew this, it revealed itself nearly immediately - it has to for the flashback, "ah-ha!" scenes toward the end of the film. The same thing had happened with my viewing of The Sixth Sense. No one actually spoiled it for me in the sense that they told me the twist was, but they (you know, 'them') kept telling me it was going to be such a surprise and that I never would guess what the twist was, and then I watched it and thought it was obvious from the very beginning - but because I was hyper-aware of some twist. I went into this screening the same way, mind like a steel trap, ready to tuck away any clue. But, um, it's just a movie with it's story being told through glimpses of stories that reflect each other.
I didn't find the film confusing in the least. There. I said it. All of the six stories are structured the same way so that all six climax at the same time. Try some Magic Realism if you want to get confused, or follow any popular comic book hero, as their story gets told across multiple titles each by a different author, usually more than one, and then they get rebooted at times. Or hell, just try reading a George R. R. Martin book or perhaps some Robert Jordan. Perhaps my previous media choices have prepared me for a story told like this better than theirs had?
While I enjoyed all of the stories, I particularly like the Ordeal of Cavendish storyline and the Neo Seoul storyline. The Ordeal of Cavendish starts of hilariously with Tom Hanks playing an in your face author, Dermot Hoggins who while being a total animal lives' out many a writer's fantasy by throwing his main critic over the balcony of an apartment that is a couple of dozen stories up. Hugo Weaving in drag as Nurse Noakes later in this one is priceless and looks like he must have had a fun time playing her. The Neo Seoul story is the most straight sf of the lot and is the most noble of the six. IN all of them, people do things for the people they love, but in this one, the main character Son Me sacrifices herself so that others might love, which is a pretty romantic ideal.
My only complaint about this movie is that not all of the prosthetics were created equally. I don't mind seeing this actor or that looking nothing like themselves, I just should see the seams between the real them and the rubberized them. It's not all of the many heavily made-up characters, just a couple of really obvious ones. I won't tell you which actor or which character, I've just set you up to be a super sleuth like I was. It's a vicious cycle apparently.

Cloud Atlas at IMDb

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

I saw this when it first came out on video. I remember thinking that Bruce Willis was such a bad ass. It seemed with Die Hard and this flick that he was now the preeminent action star on the planet. Somehow it didn't work out that way, which is kind of too bad. This film had some things going for it that Die Hard didn't, but for some reason wasn't the big success that everyone thought it would be. I can't figure out why not, except maybe what I said in the first line that I saw this as soon as it came out on video, not when it played in the theatre.
I also thought this should have been the movie that set up Damon Wayans as a legitimate action movie star. I thought that he played very well against Willis. At the end of the movie they even set it up to make one or more sequels. If they had made them, and presuming they still had Wayans and Willis, I would have watched them.
I wonder if the problem was that this film came out after Die Hard 2? The second DH movie had a lot of nice explosions, but it wasn't very good. Admittedly, it was a lot better than the third one which could have rocked, hell, should have rocked since it had Samuel L. Jackson alongside Willis.
One of the reasons this film didn't shine at the box office was definitely not the decisions made on who to cast as the "family" that Willis would interact. I thought that Chelsea Field as the wife and Danielle Harris as the daughter were great choices. But, I had to look in the credits to find out their names, so this film didn't launch them into superstardom.
Was this film jinxed or something? Maybe this is one of those films that will be looked back on by a tabloid television show in another 9 or 10 years, as the movie that ended careers. It stopped Wayans and Field and Harris from hitting the big time, it forced Willis to do Die Hard 3, it led to conspiracy theories speculating on why this film wasn't as successful as it should have been. You know. That kind of thing.
Every time I try to watch a Bruce Willis film to find some reason not to like them, or maybe it's not to like him, I'm not sure, I find myself liking it at least enough to not think of it as a waste of time and sometimes like with this film, liking it a whole lot more. Maybe I've tricked myself was some kind of intellectual bull shit rationalizations for why I want to watch Bruce Willis movies? Instead of just saying, "hey, I wanna see ol' Bruno kick some ass tonight." I invent some load of crap about trying to out the film as not high-brow enough. Who am I trying to fool? There's no one to answer to for my film watching. Not once has a librarian ever commented about any of my movie choices other than to ask what I thought of the film - they're pretty cool like that, though there is one who will tell you if she thinks a movie sucks and in fact will announce it loudly for the whole world to hear. There is no one at home to tell me they wish I had gotten another. Therefore I conclude at this moment that I need to get over myself. It is kind of ironic, because now that I appear to be coming clean about my Bruce Willis movie addiction, I think I've watched all of them.

The Last Boy Scout at IMDB